Brian Marples (1952) created the genus Korora for a small, slender fossil penguin tarsometatarsus he found in the Hakataramea valley, South Canterbury in 1948. The genus name is derived from the Māori name for the extant little penguin Eudyptula minor, although Oliver’s penguin was probably about the size of one of the larger crested penguins. The species name honours Dr W.R.B. (Brook) Oliver (1883-1957), the then recently-retired Director of the Dominion Museum, who described two species of New Zealand fossil penguins in 1930.

Oliver’s penguin is estimated to have lived during the Late Oligocene – Early Miocene (25-22 million years ago). It remains known from only a single bone – the holotype tarsometatarsus (OM C.50.63) held in Otago Museum.